The fi­nal score was not indica­tive of Tues­day’s bat­tle, how­ever. The Vikings had a slight edge in cor­ners (11-10), and the Pa­tri­ots equaled East with five shots on goal in the sec­ond half. But Great Val­ley never did get the ball past Vikings’ sopho­more goal­tender Nikki Bentley, who fin­ished with seven saves.

“Our de­fense and our keeper, Nikki, have def­i­nitely grown,” Shronk said. “It was great to see, es­pe­cially in the play­offs when you have to come up with big saves. Be­ing able to shut a team out is awe­some.”

Seeded 11th, the Pa­tri­ots’ sea­son ends with an 8-11 mark.

“Our team put the pres­sure on them but we just couldn’t fin­ish,” Winch­ester said.

Right from the start, Great Val­ley keeper, Erin Kratzer, was un­der as­sault from the at­tack­ing Vikings. East only scored once in the open­ing eight min­utes of ac­tion – Con­lon’s first -- but Kratzer faced seven shots on goal, and it clearly set a tone.

“We told the girls to be in­tense – this is the play­offs. It was re­ally good, es­pe­cially around the cage,” Shronk said.

“As we scored goals, we got more in­tense,” Con­lon added. “We didn’t want to let up at all and let them get closer than the last time we played. We wanted to re­in­force that we are the stronger team.”

West Ch­ester broke it open with a pair of goals in the fi­nal eight min­utes of the first half, with Lau­ren Fred­er­icks scor­ing off a pass from Con­lon, and then Ni­cole Fred­er­icks fin­ish­ing off a pro­longed scram­ble in front of the Great Val­ley cage.

Con­lon’s sec­ond goal (from Ni­cole Fred­er­icks) made it 4-0 mid­way through the sec­ond half, and ju­nior Cal­lie Guerra wrapped up the scor­ing off a dish from Kinzie Thomp­son.

Un­daunted, the Pats kept up the pres­sure own the stretch. Great Val­ley’s best chance to score came with just over three min­utes on the clock, but Kate Rosecky’s shot from close range was steered away by Bentley.

“We re­ally wanted to shut them out again,” Con­lon said. “To get it to start out the post­sea­son, that’s awe­some.”

Up next is a Hen­der­son squad that blasted Phoenixville, 8-0, on Wed­nes­day.

“The play­offs are dif­fer­ent, so you never know what will hap­pen,” Shronk said. “It’s great to get a chance to play them again.”

PETE BAN­NAN — DIG­I­TAL FIRST ME­DIA

West Ch­ester East’s Lau­ren Fred­er­icks (11) tries to get past Amanda Bo­clair of Great Val­ley on Wed­nes­day.